Please read the documentation in the mod's archive before posting here. And your question might already be answered elsewhere; you can try Google with the search parameter site:gsc-game.com to check this site.

Read the "Find your log file" section. Most "crashes" are fixable, but we need the info from the end of the log file.

If you don't start a new game, there may be some minor problems with your saved games. The saves are modified versions of the all.spawn file present when you started your current game. Saved games based on mods might also include custom items from those mods, and support for them will need to be merged to avoid crashes.

Edit: What's with the still-broken link tags? I've removed them for now...

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
>> Is there a way to fix the radiation sickness if it doesn't go away?

Kane4, the mechanism suggested by romulous is probably the easiest way to duplicate your current progress in a vanilla game, but there's no solution for a heavily-modded game at the moment. Although I believe that the removal of the radiation zones near the level-based instant-max-radiation barriers will prevent this problem, that "fix" would likely require starting a new game, until someone posts (or I eventually figure out) a way to remove the orphaned effector.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯romulous, my goof on not including a wide-screen version of the non-blinking PDA tweak. I think your widescreen monitor is a recent change, but it occurred before I posted the update and I just didn't remember.

The "can't select grenade" glitch might eventually be worked around via script, but it is an engine quirk. Another workaround is to select another weapon via keybind, de-select it the same way, then select the grenades via keybind (default 4).

I've posted some comments on your crash on the ZSG forum. It looks like you have that crash resolved.
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---QUOTATION---Noticed that when leaving NPP going back to Pripyat that I cannot just walk through the gate to trigger the level change. Seems I must try to jump the barb wire fence to the right of the gate in order to trigger it.---END QUOTATION---

ERForman, that's by design. Pretty much any new level changer at a fence or pile of concrete blocks must be "climbed". This reduces the odds of accidentally triggering it; I raised it after being asked to change levels while fighting a bunch of mutants and bandits at the Cordon-to-Dark-Valley level changer.

You'll also note that the NPP to Pripyat level changer is at the fence, not the locked gate, for this reason.

I had posted somewhere that there was a trick to these level changers, and that's it: You have to jump to trigger them, except for the Yantar-to-Agroprom one since there is no physical barrier at that location.

Should this be changed? Folks don't read docs, so putting a note that you would have to do this isn't likely to work. And the change is trivial: Just lower the Y value a couple of meters for each of the added changers. It's all dynamic, and the existing changers should be moveable in a current game with the approach I've used, although some additional scripting might be needed to "move" the LCs.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯Notes from the field:

Zombies regenerate. Rather quickly, too; full health in about a minute, even though they can still be writhing on the ground. At this point, they are the only self-healing NPCs I've found.

Remote crate smashing by NPCs or mutants can result in the player's death due to a physics collision bug in the demo. It's rare, but I'll investigate a fix. Also, if the remote crate was distant enough, its contents might be left at the player's location (at the time of the breakage) after a save/reload. I'll probably fix both these issues by limiting the distance supported by the workaround.

Playing the demo with the vanilla all.spawn (i.e., not starting a new game) isn't as bad as I expected. I'll post an update on this as soon as I finish the playthrough at least to the point where the free play starts. (Yes, that's right: free play is now possible even though you didn't start a new game.)

For those playing the demo, I'd like some feedback on some things if you have any preferences about them:

What in the demo should be part of the official ZRP 1.05 release? For example, I was thinking of including the MonoMartyrs, but disabling them by default. And the Artifact Swap is a simple way to give you something useful to do, but it's not really a vanilla-oriented thing.

What about the version of Decane's Quest Overhaul? Maybe make it an option, like before? I ask because it requires the modified ui_icon_equipment.dds file, which is likely not compatible with a lot of mods out there. Same goes for the Explosives Carry mini-mod; it is dependent on that modified icon file.

If I keep the free-play support but eliminate all the demo features, then free play will go back to being very boring.

Also: If you are dropping medkits via normal inventory drop or Esc F2, it currently won't heal the walking wounded if their health is 80 or above. And you don't become friends unless their health was 70 or below. Plus you get full reputation points at the moment. Are these okay?

I was thinking of scaling the reputation gain with the amount of healing, something like +10 points for NPCs whose health is below 40, but only +5 if it is between 40 and 60, and none above that.

---QUOTATION---For those playing the demo, I'd like some feedback on some things if you have any preferences about them:

What in the demo should be part of the official ZRP 1.05 release? For example, I was thinking of including the MonoMartyrs, but disabling them by default. And the Artifact Swap is a simple way to give you something useful to do, but it's not really a vanilla-oriented thing.

What about the version of Decane's Quest Overhaul? Maybe make it an option, like before? I ask because it requires the modified ui_icon_equipment.dds file, which is likely not compatible with a lot of mods out there. Same goes for the Explosives Carry mini-mod; it is dependent on that modified icon file.

If I keep the free-play support but eliminate all the demo features, then free play will go back to being very boring.---END QUOTATION---

Having to jump the level changers was pretty easy to figure out (for an experienced player anyway). I would put it in a readme somewhere.

I like having the MMs off by default but Artie xchange on. Like you say it is needed to defeat boredom and makes you experiment with more of the debug commands.

The icon file is also a problem with the Sleeping Bag mod which I know a lot of people like to use. Of course you can speed up time to accomplish the same purpose but this doesn't have much realism.

---QUOTATION---The "can't select grenade" glitch might eventually be worked around via script, but it is an engine quirk. Another workaround is to select another weapon via keybind, de-select it the same way, then select the grenades via keybind (default 4).---END QUOTATION---

So when it happens, hit 3 to bring up your rifle, hit 3 again to put away your rifle, then hit 4 to bring up a grenade?

---QUOTATION---Notes from the field:

Zombies regenerate. Rather quickly, too; full health in about a minute, even though they can still be writhing on the ground. At this point, they are the only self-healing NPCs I've found.---END QUOTATION---

If you like self-healing zombies, you would love the Clear Sky version. As soon as you shoot one, he becomes "unzombied", whereupon he can run, dodge, shoot with 100% accuracy, flank you and they are now invulnerable to anything less than a tactical nuke to boot.

---QUOTATION---

Remote crate smashing by NPCs or mutants can result in the player's death due to a physics collision bug in the demo.---END QUOTATION---

ROFL! Nothing surprises me with this game anymore.

---QUOTATION---For those playing the demo, I'd like some feedback on some things if you have any preferences about them:

What in the demo should be part of the official ZRP 1.05 release? For example, I was thinking of including the MonoMartyrs, but disabling them by default. And the Artifact Swap is a simple way to give you something useful to do, but it's not really a vanilla-oriented thing.---END QUOTATION---

I would say leave all the stuff you currently have in, but just disable them by default (I for one will be instantly re-enabling them, but I think people should have the choice)

---QUOTATION---What about the version of Decane's Quest Overhaul? Maybe make it an option, like before? I ask because it requires the modified ui_icon_equipment.dds file, which is likely not compatible with a lot of mods out there. Same goes for the Explosives Carry mini-mod; it is dependent on that modified icon file.---END QUOTATION---

Leave both in, but make them options. The carry mod especially is important - it is the only workaround to the ridiculously broken "stealth" (what a joke) aspects of this game.

---QUOTATION---If I keep the free-play support but eliminate all the demo features, then free play will go back to being very boring.---END QUOTATION---

It will be, yes.

---QUOTATION---Also: If you are dropping medkits via normal inventory drop or Esc F2, it currently won't heal the walking wounded if their health is 80 or above. And you don't become friends unless their health was 70 or below. Plus you get full reputation points at the moment. Are these okay?---END QUOTATION---

Yep, I don't have a problem with either of these values.

---QUOTATION---I was thinking of scaling the reputation gain with the amount of healing, something like +10 points for NPCs whose health is below 40, but only +5 if it is between 40 and 60, and none above that.---END QUOTATION---

What does reputation actually effect in this game? If nothing, I'd say leave as is. If reputation does have an effect (I've never noticed anything), then differing values could add some variety.

NatVac, slightly OT, but you will be pleased to know that your zpawn spawning script works great in Clear Sky

I wanted the ultimashield artifact in Clear Sky, so I started playing around. I had edited the artifact files but then I needed to work out how to get it into my game. I tried adding it to a stash, but I didn't have any luck doing it that way. If I added it to an already 'purple icon on the map' stash, it wouldn't appear (presumably I needed to add it to a stash that I was yet to get the secret for). I then tried adding it to a stash that I hadn't yet got the secret for (added it to every stash in the garbage treasure manager), but that didn't work - I couldn't get a garbage secret from anyone, but I did get an agroprom one (lol).

Anyway, after thinking about adding it to a conversation, say from Wolf (who is also in CS, but I couldn't work out how to do that), I decided to try your zpawn script. I copied zpawn_factory.script into ..\gamedata\scripts and then I needed to add the key code to the main menu. I'm using Ceano's (I think) script that adds time speedup (with Esc F2/F3 etc), so there was already a ui_main_menu.script in the same folder. I copied the if (dik == DIK_keys.DIK_Z) bit from _z.script in ZRP into that file, edited it slightly (CS has a slightly different syntax by the looks, so I had to remove one line - that being fix_performed = true) and then opened the game to try it out.

I first attempted to spawn the ultimashield, that gave me an instant CTD with an odd error (which I think means I screwed up editing the artifacts file). I then tried spawning an MP5. Worked flawlessly (only thing is that in ZRP, Esc D Z takes you back into the game after you use it, with my merge into CS, it doesn't take me back into the game, I have to close the main menu myself). So, now I need to go back in and see if I can work out the artifacts file (which again is slightly different to SHOC, so I can't just copy and paste exactly from ZRP). Still, I thought you'd be interested to know your spawning code does work for CS

Edit #1: This was the CS error, just for interest:
Expression : bone_id!=BI_NONE
Function : SArtefactDetectorsSupport::SetVisible
File : E:\priquel\sources\engine\xrGame\Artefact.cpp
Line : 517
Description : joint2
As I say, I think I messed up the artifacts file.

Edit #2: Main menu now disappears automatically when you use the key combo, which is good. Only one problem remains, the spawning of the actual artifact. Changed some stuff in the artifacts file, tried to spawn it - had the particle effect, but no item was on the ground. Tried with one of the vanilla CS artifacts, and got the same thing - particle effect, but no item. So, I think I have the artifacts file correct now, but CS must have some catch to artifact spawning. I know it can be done, Helios has his spawn mod, I just need to do some more experimenting. Anyway, sorry for the OT!

I read the PDA when i wait for respawns in the wild territory. I hide in the truck's back (the one by the levelchanger to the bar) and read while i listen to monster grunts.

Having trouble? Are you stuck? Or do you just want to know everything about it? Here are Dawnrazor's Guides to SoC and CoP!:
The Zone Survival Guide - Shadow of Chernobyl: http://www.zsg.dk
The Zone Survival Guide - Call of Pripyat: http://cop.zsg.dk

---QUOTATION---The icon file is also a problem with the Sleeping Bag mod which I know a lot of people like to use. Of course you can speed up time to accomplish the same purpose but this doesn't have much realism.---END QUOTATION---

ERForman, the included icon file already supports the ABC Sleeping Bag mod by using the same location coordinates for the bag. I agree about the lack of realism with the time speedup function.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯romulous, yes to your question about selecting/deselecting a weapon, then selecting the grenades. The rare remote-crate-smash-death problem is due to the workaround. I've only had it happen once, but I know what happened.

At the moment, reputation only affects you: what you see about yourself in the PDA, and what ending you might get at the Monolith if you are not rich. I'm considering changes to this for a personal project.

Also, thanks for the comprehensive feedback. I can't speak to the CS stuff, though. I would expect a bit of work porting anything from Soc to CS, like artifacts or scripts. Yes, the fix_performed variable is a ZRP variable, named back when the debug stuff only did fixes. It's used by code later in the function to close the console to get you back into the game.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯llama_man, that sounds like a bad merge. The archive has that function in _z.script. It could be the OS, or perhaps a merge issue with SMM. What I could do is make the mod a "patch", so that it is not merged, but that would probably wreak havoc with other mods.

There's some trouble with updating stuff in the Program Files directories in Vista and Windows 7. See the note to Folks below.

The mod can be installed without the SMM over existing vanilla or ZRP games by simply copying over the mod's gamedata directory to your STALKER installation directory if the OS permits it. If you don't have any other mods, that could be done here. Otherwise, start by copying over gamedata\scripts\_z.script from the ZRP demo archive to the corresponding place in your STALKER installation directory.

You'll have to reconfigure a couple of entries in the Modifier if you use it. Here's a list of the _ZRP.cfg entries affected by _z.script:

And compare the mod archive files with the files in your gamedata\ directory.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯Folks, updates on Vista and Windows 7 (RC, but probably in the official release as well) may have some reliability problems due to UAC issues. The OSes seem to be trying to protect the user. The changes seem successful, until you check out the files that are supposed to be changed. For this same reason, the Modifier program may not work properly.

Workarounds include taking ownership of the STALKER installation, or running in full admin mode when making changes (not recommended for day-to-day operation).

---QUOTATION---The icon file is also a problem with the Sleeping Bag mod which I know a lot of people like to use. Of course you can speed up time to accomplish the same purpose but this doesn't have much realism.ERForman, the included icon file already supports the ABC Sleeping Bag mod by using the same location coordinates for the bag. I agree about the lack of realism with the time speedup function.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯romulous, yes to your question about selecting/deselecting a weapon, then selecting the grenades. The rare remote-crate-smash-death problem is due to the workaround. I've only had it happen once, but I know what happened.

At the moment, reputation only affects you: what you see about yourself in the PDA, and what ending you might get at the Monolith if you are not rich. I'm considering changes to this for a personal project.

Also, thanks for the comprehensive feedback. I can't speak to the CS stuff, though. I would expect a bit of work porting anything from Soc to CS, like artifacts or scripts. Yes, the fix_performed variable is a ZRP variable, named back when the debug stuff only did fixes. It's used by code later in the function to close the console to get you back into the game.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯llama_man, that sounds like a bad merge. The archive has that function in _z.script. It could be the OS, or perhaps a merge issue with SMM. What I could do is make the mod a "patch", so that it is not merged, but that would probably wreak havoc with other mods.

There's some trouble with updating stuff in the Program Files directories in Vista and Windows 7. See the note to Folks below.

The mod can be installed without the SMM over existing vanilla or ZRP games by simply copying over the mod's gamedata directory to your STALKER installation directory if the OS permits it. If you don't have any other mods, that could be done here. Otherwise, start by copying over gamedata\scripts\_z.script from the ZRP demo archive to the corresponding place in your STALKER installation directory.

You'll have to reconfigure a couple of entries in the Modifier if you use it. Here's a list of the _ZRP.cfg entries affected by _z.script:

And compare the mod archive files with the files in your gamedata\ directory.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯Folks, updates on Vista and Windows 7 (RC, but probably in the official release as well) may have some reliability problems due to UAC issues. The OSes seem to be trying to protect the user. The changes seem successful, until you check out the files that are supposed to be changed. For this same reason, the Modifier program may not work properly.

Workarounds include taking ownership of the STALKER installation, or running in full admin mode when making changes (not recommended for day-to-day operation).---END QUOTATION---

Thanks, i did not do anything yet but you did shed some light on this, cos my problem is bigger than just this mod.

I cannot play stalker without ZRP. I re-install the game, patch it up to 1.0005, and run it. The loading screen appears, the one where the game isnt fullscreen yet, but after it disappears the dreadful "please wait..." box appears and the bugdetector thing gives me an error.

Im running vista, but i dont really know how to give myself administrative rights... How do i install the game with those rights?

I read the PDA when i wait for respawns in the wild territory. I hide in the truck's back (the one by the levelchanger to the bar) and read while i listen to monster grunts.

Having trouble? Are you stuck? Or do you just want to know everything about it? Here are Dawnrazor's Guides to SoC and CoP!:
The Zone Survival Guide - Shadow of Chernobyl: http://www.zsg.dk
The Zone Survival Guide - Call of Pripyat: http://cop.zsg.dk

---QUOTATION---How hard would it be to force the player to have to sleep from time to time? I don't think ABC does that for you.---END QUOTATION---

ERForman, I think that would need to be a persistent variable (added to the save games) to track the time since you last slept. Alternatively, one could get tired at night automatically, but that's not very realistic. The ones who play with a "darker nights" modification probably won't have a problem wanting to sleep it off. I'll add it to the list, but I don't even have the sleeping bag option enabled yet.

Also, for folks doing this: Be sure to use the ui_icon_equipment.dds file that came with the demo. If you were to give the ABC sleeping bag mod priority in SMM, it would overwrite the more-comprehensive ZRP icon image file.
__________

---QUOTATION---Im running vista, but i dont really know how to give myself administrative rights... How do i install the game with those rights?---END QUOTATION---

I searched via Google, llama man. Here's a useful link on taking control of your folders in Vista:

You want to give your normal "I log in as..." user (%username%) full access rights only to your STALKER directory and its subdirectories. You might need full admin rights to do that. The same site has this as the previous page:

Disclaimer: I don't have Vista or Windows 7. It does look similar to that for XP, except that under XP I had to select Tools > Folder Options..., click the View tab in the Folder Options dialog that appeared, then deselect the "Use simple file sharing (recommended)" checkbox and okay all the dialogs, in order to get the "Sharing and Security..." RMB pop-up menu option to display the "Security" tab on the dialog.

Normally, a complete destruction of the installation directory after an uninstall should work. But I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Microsoft changed the admin policy or the user rights with SP1 or an automatic Windows update, since some mods were initially installed without issue, and they now tend to still hang around (with bloodsucker invisibility) even after a uninstall/re-install.

So if you delete the folder but you don't have full rights, then you haven't deleted the folder from the system's perspective, apparently. And the installer revives the hidden folder, and dumps new stuff into it.

An existing example of this in XP: Those desktop icons? Some are in "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop\" while some are in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\", which you might not be able to see without running with admin rights. You can delete the entire contents of the user folder and still have some icons remaining.

Wolfehunter has some useful suggestions in his "Vista or Win7 Proper installation" post near the bottom of the first page for downloading SmP:

---QUOTATION---romulous, yes to your question about selecting/deselecting a weapon, then selecting the grenades. The rare remote-crate-smash-death problem is due to the workaround. I've only had it happen once, but I know what happened.

At the moment, reputation only affects you: what you see about yourself in the PDA, and what ending you might get at the Monolith if you are not rich. I'm considering changes to this for a personal project.

Also, thanks for the comprehensive feedback. I can't speak to the CS stuff, though. I would expect a bit of work porting anything from Soc to CS, like artifacts or scripts. Yes, the fix_performed variable is a ZRP variable, named back when the debug stuff only did fixes. It's used by code later in the function to close the console to get you back into the game.---END QUOTATION---

Sounds good. And I did get the spawning function fully working, the artifacts are spawned directly into your inventory now. I'm almost tempted to try doing that for the ZRP spawn, to get around that bug where if you spawn on a slope, the items drop below the ground.

---QUOTATION---Folks, updates on Vista and Windows 7 (RC, but probably in the official release as well) may have some reliability problems due to UAC issues. The OSes seem to be trying to protect the user. The changes seem successful, until you check out the files that are supposed to be changed. For this same reason, the Modifier program may not work properly.

Workarounds include taking ownership of the STALKER installation, or running in full admin mode when making changes (not recommended for day-to-day operation).---END QUOTATION---

If you really have trouble, install STALKER to a folder that is not one of the protected ones - e.g. install to C:\STALKER and not C:\Program Files.